Chris Martin Liberal Democrat candidate for Pyrford Ward on 4 May

Pyrford resident, father of 2 sons, world record holder, ocean rower, business owner, keen cyclist, fit energetic campaigner and compassionate supporter of those less able to help themselves.
Chris talks to Cllr Peter Graves about his life, achievements and ambitions and reveals some surprising and candid stories about himself.

Transcript

Peter Graves 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Woking Examiner Podcast. In this series of podcasts, we interview the Councillors, portfolio holders and supporters who are assisting the Lib Council as we seek to address the many years of mismanagement committed by previous administrations. I'm Peter Graves, councilor for Pyrford Ward, and over the course of the next couple of episodes in this series, I'll be talking to our amazing group of candidates who are standing for election on the 4th of May this year. Today I'm joined by Chris Martin Lib Dem candidate for Pyrford Ward. Hello Chris and welcome to the Woking Examiner. How are you, Chris?

Chris Martin 0:41

Hi, Peter. Great to be here. I'm doing really well thanks.

Peter Graves 0:45

So tell me, Chris, why exactly do you want to become a counselor?

Chris Martin 0:51

So for me, I want to become a counselor to make a positive change in my area for. A load of different reasons. But as a young father and as a local businessman I think that there is more that needs to be done to support people like myself. And having seen and learned more about what has gone on previously in the council it's made me want to be more active and more engaged in the political process.

Peter Graves 1:20

That's similar to me in a way I wanted to get involved to see what I could offer in the web skills and how I could help improve the borough.

Chris Martin 1:28

Yeah, absolutely. I think it, it's quite interesting having gone around canvassing and speaking to people. Some people are very disenfranchised with politics and have said, oh, I don't want anything to do with it. And I guess at some point in my past I was close to that. But then realized that either I could sit there complaining about all the problems, or I could step up, lean into it and be part of the solution.

Peter Graves 1:51

I think you speak for a lot of us there wanting to do something rather than just sitting at home, moaning. so what experiences can you bring to the council work or otherwise?

Chris Martin 2:01

Sure. I'm run my own business. I'm a. Set up my own company. So I've got the experience of the challenges that represents. And an awful lot of people who are residents in the ward and in the borough do own their own businesses and go through that series of challenges on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

Peter Graves 2:20

Yep.

Chris Martin 2:22

also, I'm a former international rower an ocean rower. I'm somebody who steps up when the time is needed to overcome challenges, to bring new insight, new ideas into things to reinvigorate things with a little bit more energy than maybe local politics has been blessed with in the past.

Peter Graves 2:44

In fact, Chris, I will say I did read the the book in which you feature written by Mick Dawson. Absolutely what he says about you as a, as an individual and the characteristics that you showed when you're rowing across the Pacific are absolutely what we need in the council. Really look forward to working for you, working with you. Chris what have you found hardest about campaigning?

Chris Martin 3:06

Campaigning. I hasn't, I haven't found campaigning particularly hard yet. I think I'm used to late nights, early mornings, putting hours and time and effort in. I think my biggest challenge has been to focus my attentions in the areas where, I can be best utilized as the candidate and allow the rest of the team and lean on that bigger team that I'm not used to having as a businessman. Running my own company it's normally comes down to me and a few others at times when it gets busy. So having a really, Experienced and enthusiastic team behind me has been brilliant and has been an excellent experience.

Peter Graves 3:50

Yeah I think we're blessed in Pyrford to have such a strong team. And really we're all pulling in exactly the same direction. That kind of answers my. I was gonna say to you, what have you enjoyed most about the campaign? But I think it sounds like the team. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Martin 4:03

I've really enjoyed meeting the team both the Lib Dem team, but also meeting residents around the ward. When you knock on someone's door and you have a conversation with them, if they're even slightly politically engaged, even if we have slightly different political views, its. Fascinating, interesting, insightful and a brilliant way to, to learn what people's desires and needs are in the ward. And that's so vital because as a, hopefully as a future counselor, I will be representing those residents on the Council.

Peter Graves 4:37

Chris, tell me you've been elected. What do you think are the specific concerns that you'd like to deal with in, in your ward?

Chris Martin 4:44

So one thing I'd really like to get started on is to arrange a Mayberry Residents Association and get that underway. We've spoken to a few residents already who are keen and willing to be involved and engaged on that, which is a great start. But it now takes the hard legwork to actually get that in place. the benefits of that for Maybury are gonna. Pretty significant in terms of additional CIL funding, availability, and having for us a resource to, to gauge re residents feedback and level of importance of what they want to see.

Peter Graves 5:19

It's a really good way of us engaging with Maybury and. Yeah, understanding what sort of needs and requirements they have as well. So I think that's a really good idea. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Martin 5:29

Sorry, I was just gonna also touch on things like the shops around Marshall's Parade and the parking on the verges there, which is, I know something that's very pertinent at the moment and keen to your heart given the mud slide that's currently going on around there. And then also looking at the development of Botanical Gardens over in West Byfleet. And the retail offering, which is being decided on or being arranged at the moment as construction's going ahead to try and ensure there's certainly a chemist pharmacy and ideally a public toilet there.

Peter Graves 5:59

Yeah, I think big, the big call is for a post office as well. But there's all sorts of

Chris Martin 6:02

old.

Peter Graves 6:04

yeah, there's all sorts of restrictions. I think that but there's no reason why it shouldn't happen anyway. The next question I was really gonna ask, I think we've touched on it, but your main strengths. What do you tend now and how do you think they will make a difference in the council.

Chris Martin 6:19

Yeah. So I think when you start something new whatever it is you go in with, A brand new way of looking at things that nobody else who's been there for a period of time, however long that is, will have. And I think that early period in the council is vital because I believe I've got the skills and I've done this previously and other companies and and elsewhere where I've come into a new position and. Changed things rapidly for the better. Little, small changes that add up to a big a big benefit and a massive, net positive at the end of the year. So I wanna use that time early on to have fresh eyes see where there's changes and efficiencies and benefits to be made and get stuck into affecting that positive change.

Peter Graves 7:09

So you've mentioned your experience in business, but can you give me a specific personal example of something that you've achieved and that you think may have shaped the way you are now?

Chris Martin 7:20

Oh, on a personal level? Yeah, absolutely. You might be able to guess this, but unsurprisingly rowing across the Pacific was in fact, actually I'd say rowing across the Atlantic. Cause that was my first ocean row. It was significantly shorter, but it was by myself and having to go through every day for just over two months and make a decision every day, or many decisions every single day that would. Potentially end the project and cause a failure of the whole row. So everything I was doing, every choice I made was essentially choosing whether or not I would survive

Peter Graves 7:59

Yeah, so the, so these were you could almost say life and death

Chris Martin 8:04

Yeah, no,

Peter Graves 8:05

That you were having to make on your own on the hoof, as it were, without having the ability to bounce'em off anybody else. So that must be very difficult.

Chris Martin 8:12

It's difficult to start off with and then you learn to trust yourself more and more. There's no possible sense of complacency because the ocean will just, the ocean will always teach you who's boss. As soon as you start to become a bit a bit too show offy and a bit too confident it'll teach you where to where to get off.

Peter Graves 8:35

I think probably of course, coming across the Pacific, there was two of you, so you did have that chance to sleep and you had two hours on, two hours off, but on your own. I can't imagine what it would be that you really, you can't stop. You're not, you weren't running 24 7, but you were every time you took a break, it must have been a case oh idea, I'm slipping backwards, the wind's blowing back, or whatever it might have been. That might, yeah, must been incredibly difficult.

Chris Martin 8:58

Yeah, the uh, in that situation there's always something. To think about, you're never off the clock. And I guess in some ways that's fairly similar to being a counselor. People will call up whatever time of day, you're always thinking about casework. That's ongoing. You're always thinking about the next problem that needs solving. So it's absolutely ideal.

Peter Graves 9:16

But a perfect experience for becoming a counselor, I'm sure. So I've got some interesting question here. I dunno if you could be able to think of an answer here and now, but if you were the Prime Minister for a day, for example, Chris what do you think, what would you change?

Chris Martin 9:33

Oh, what would I change? Probably on the political landscape. Something like getting proportional representation. On the scorecard. One member, one vote, it's the first pass to post system is is dead and buried. And we move to proportional representation whereby your vote counts, every single vote counts, and there's no need to be tactical in your voting. Because. Your vote is directly represented in in Westminster.

Peter Graves 10:03

Exactly. I I think that's a great, I think it's a great answer, and I'm sure most of us would go for the same action. Then bringing it down to a more local scale, if you could change one thing in Woking what do you think it would be?

Chris Martin 10:14

Is this apart from the 2.4 billion pounds worth of debt, the councils in?

Peter Graves 10:18

Yes.

Chris Martin 10:18

I would love to see more. Accessible public transport cycle networks easy commun easy transportation links, which don't require a car and an internal combustion engine to work. I was just thinking the other day, it'd be lovely to be able to cycle from home over to Woking. It's only five miles. But the problem is the path on the canal is patchy at best. And it's okay to run on sometimes, but it's not really something that we could cycle on with young kids. So then would I want them cycling on the road? Yeah. Not with the road to the state they are at the moment. And it's just a shame that we want to be able to have that green transport network. But it's currently avoid.

Peter Graves 11:03

It's good that we've got these we've got these petitions out to. Introduce a more cycle friendly cycle friendly ward. Particularly reducing the speed limits on some of the major roads and the speed limits on in the residence areas. Do you think that's the sort of thing that you'd like to push forward with as well?

Chris Martin 11:19

Oh, absolutely. There's been a few occasions where we've had cars speeding past our house. It's scary, you're just thinking what on earth and there's been times when you know, my kids are out playing in the front garden or something and there, but for the grace of God

Peter Graves 11:33

I think it's a, I think the feedback I get from residents is that they'd like to see that they have a lot of complaints about speeding. Yeah, we hopefully we'll move forward positively on that one. Let ask a more perhaps taxing question because I'm asking, look into the future now. Hundred days into the job what would you like to be able to say to residents that you've achieved?

Chris Martin 11:51

Hundred days in, I'd like to say that they're, I identified some sort of key areas that need to be updated or changed. That I understand the way that can be addressed in, at the council level and that was started working towards it. and I think residents need to. An easy way to reach out to their Councillors. And I think there needs to be a feedback loop so that we can feed back to our residents really easily about the work that we're doing and how we're getting on with the jobs that are important to them.

Peter Graves 12:33

That sounds intriguing. I'm my I'm interested in. How we're gonna, how we're gonna do that. You've obviously got some ideas up your sleeve, so that's really good. Final question, and this is the one, one that I was asked once at an interview. You walk into a cafe and your friends are talking about you. What are they saying?

Chris Martin 12:50

Oh it actually reminds me of something that So my wife and I met through a mutual friend, and when Sandra asked this friend what I was like her reply was you can depend on him. There's three things, death, taxes, and Chris Martin.

Peter Graves 13:05

Very good.

Chris Martin 13:05

I'm taking that as the, I think that's how my friends would describe

Peter Graves 13:09

Chris has been absolutely wonderful to talk to you. Thank you so much. And I'm sure that the listeners have got a far. Better idea now of the sort of person they're gonna be voting for in May or May the fourth. I wish you all the best with your campaign, and hopefully we'll be working together in the council chamber on May the fifth.

Chris Martin 13:27

Absolutely. Thanks a lot Peter.